Axe News

Open Pitt Award

Are you interested in impacting student success and completion rates by making college more affordable for students? Using open education resource (OER) textbooks is one option. These textbooks can be adopted without any changes, or faculty have the freedom to customize learning materials by adapting, editing, and remixing free resources tailoring the content to specific needs of students and course objectives.

Adopting an OER textbook is a great first step in learning more about OER implementation. In order to promote the adoption of OER textbooks at Pittsburg State, professional development awards are being offered to faculty who adopt a no-cost OER textbook to replace a traditional textbook. Six awards of $150 will be awarded for textbook adoptions for Spring 2018. The application link is located at the end of this message. Before applying, you might want to read through the following information about the Open PITT Award:

Application Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cost-savings impact the OER adoption will have upon students, the number of students affected, as well as the order in which the completed applications are received. Applications will be evaluated by the Pittsburg State OER Steering Committee. Additionally, preference will be given to faculty adopting OER for high enrollment, general education classes for which high-quality OER textbooks already exist.

Deadlines and Requirements

September 1, 2017: Applications Due September 8, 2017: Recipients notified of award September 2017:Meet with OER Steering Committee members to help identify OER textbookOctober 13, 2017:OER text book adoption due November and December 2017: Meet with OER Committee members Spring 2018: Implement OER Textbook with students August 2018: Present at PD Day with all recipients of the award

During the Fall 2016 semester, students from Intro to Audio/Visual Production course (COMM274) worked on creating promotional material for Leonard H. Axe Library. During the semester Professor Leo Hudson and his students met with library staff to discuss ideas on how to promote the Library, Student Success, The Writing Center, Axe Grind and other student spaces.

This turned out to be a great opportunity for the students and the library. It allowed students to work in a sample client environment and allowed the library to continue showing off our Pitt student talent in a fun and creative manner.